


Journey to the Heaviside Layer

by WeSangDirges



Category: Cats - Andrew Lloyd Webber
Genre: Angst, Ficlet, Gen, when is a tire not just a tire?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 02:23:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19898311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeSangDirges/pseuds/WeSangDirges
Summary: “Here?” asked Grizabella, stepping out into the street. “But this looks just like any other old road.”





	Journey to the Heaviside Layer

**Author's Note:**

> At the end of the show Old Dueteronomy escorts Grizabella to the Heaviside Layer on a flying tire. This is a metaphor.
> 
> (Inspired and written at 3am because a friend of mine watched the show for the first time and we both had similar ideas of what the ending might have really meant.
> 
> Rated teen for some possibly upsetting themes and character death, but there's nothing graphic.)

“This is the way?”

Old Deuteronomy sighed. The walk to The Place was not long, not really, but he had begun to feel the creep of age in his bones years ago now. Even when he was a younger cat this journey had never been easy, and now that he was old and worn and had undertaken it so very, very many times it was nearly impossible. His companion was eager he could see, but she was old too. She could no more rush on ahead than he could anymore. The ones he chose rarely could. Together Old Deuteronomy and Grizabella crept slowly through the quiet city streets.

“Yes, my dear. This is the way.” If his sorrow was as obvious as it sounded to his own ears, then Old Deuteronomy didn’t think she noticed.

“I wish the others could have come with us. I know I’ve only just reconciled but...” He looked to see her wiping a paw across her shiny eyes. “But their farewell was so... so...”

“I know, my dear. They all wished to come along as well, I’m sure.” Old Deuteronomy was very glad indeed that the other Jellicles were not present. “But tradition you know, a single escort and all that. And it wouldn’t do to have every cat around know the way to the Heaviside Layer.” No. No it would not do at all.

Grizabella laughed, a quiet, rough sound. She sounded as though she had only just relearned how to do it after many years of never needing to. Perhaps she had.

Ahead of them now Old Deuteronomy could see The Place. His heart begged him to slow his pace even further, but any more and Grizabella would surely notice. He kept his tottering stride even, until halting them both just at the edge of the hard ground stretched before them. Behind the buildings, the sun was beginning to paint the sky with the colors of dawn. The world around them was beginning to wake.

“Stand just there, my dear,” Old Deuteronomy said, pointing a paw out to the middle of the open ground. “That is where your chariot will arrive to take you to the Heaviside Layer.”

“Here?” asked Grizabella, stepping out into the street. “But this looks just like any other old road.”

“I’m sure, my dear. Stay just where you are and- oh! Look! Here comes the chariot now!”

Down the road came a noise of rumbling, bright lights blinding as they approached ever closer.

“Take care now not to move! Just look straight into the lights. Can you feel how warm they are? Can you hear how they welcome you back home? Keep looking!” You would never know from his voice alone, but Old Deuteronomy could feel tears disturb the tattered fur of his face.

And Grizabella looked. She looked deep into the lights, ignoring the urge to flee. Her old bones wouldn’t be able to move quick enough anyway. 

“Goodbye, my dear! Goodbye. May a new life await you with open arms! Goodbye!”

Old Deuteronomy sounded truly wretched now, but Grizabella paid him no mind. She was looking into the lights. She _could_ feel their warmth! For the first time in years she could no longer feel the pains that racked her. She listened and she found she _could_ hear something! It was the glorious blare of trumpets, heralding her arrival. She felt a great breeze blow through her coat, and she closed her eyes. A smile graced her crooked mouth. The lights reached her and she felt nothing else.

——

Old Deuteronomy watched after the car as it swerved and squealed away, horn fading into the silence of morning. It was done then. He looked to the street, to the grey lump laying still on the pavement. A new life, he thought to himself as he turned away. Slowly, achingly, he began the lonesome walk back to the junkyard. Back to the other Jellicles, still celebrating the ascension of one of their own. The pace he set might just give him enough time to dry the tears from his fur and arrange his face into something more like a smile. 

No, this journey certainly never got any easier.

**Author's Note:**

> If you made it this far, then thanks for reading! I wrote this in about 20 minutes, and spent about 2 minutes proof reading it when I woke up the next morning, so apologies if it's not my best work.


End file.
